Timeline Of The Kleen Energy Power Plant

Feb. 7, 201011 a.m. explosion kills at least five and injures 12Middletown Deputy Fire Marshal Al Santostefano said the explosion appears to have occurred when operators attempted a "blow down" of natural gas pipelines, a procedure that involves the purging of gas pipelines.

Feb. 4, 2010The U.S. Chemical Safety Board announced it was considering what it called urgent recommendations to change national fuel gas codes to improve safety when gas pipes are being purged, or cleared of air during maintenance or installation of new piping. The recommendations grew from the board's ongoing federal investigation into the June 9, 2009, natural gas explosion at the ConAgra Slim Jim production plant in Garner, N. C., which caused four deaths and other injuries that sent 67 people to the hospital.

2008Energy Investors Funds, with a multibillion-dollar power-generation portfolio stretching across the country, acquired 80 percent of Kleen Energy by pulling together $985 million in construction financing. The project was underwritten by Goldman Sachs, and ProjectFinance magazine named it "The Deal of the Year'' in 2008.

2007After Enron collapsed and banks stopped financing power plants, advocates of the plant talked up "capacity contracts" -- 15-year agreements that pay plants just to exist and act as incentives to developers to build them. The state Department of Public Utility Control issued four of these contracts in 2007 in a fiercely competitive bid that drew some of the largest operators in the country. Kleen Energy bagged the biggest share of the capacity payments.

2006As of 2006, the company was petitioning the Siting Council to be able to produce 620 megawatts. A megawatt is enough to serve 700 to 1,000 homes.